LiveScience reports that, according to professor Costas Efthimiou, vampires are a mathematical impossibility.

His argument is that if every person that a vampire bites becomes a vampire and vampires have to feed at least once a month to satisfy their bloodlust, then the whole population of the world would be converted into vampires in just a few years.

That’s because after each month, there are twice the number of vampires as the month before, and each one goes on to bite a new victim the following month. Since the world is not full of vampires by now, you can deduce that vampires are not possible.

Well, needless to say, the vampire lore is still safe, at least for now. The problem with arguments like this is that flawed assumptions lead to flawed conclusions.

Anyone who knows anything about vampires, or at least what Hollywood tells us about vampires in movies such as Interview With the Vampire, should be able to spot the flaw in the professor’s argument.

The flaw is that not every person that gets bitten by a vampire becomes a vampire. Only those who survive the encounter become vampires. Think of it as birth control for vampires, which avoids the problem the professor describes.

I don’t believe in vampires, but if you decide to dress up as Dracula this Halloween, you can rest assured that you are not representing a mathematical impossibility.

Happy Halloween

Read the article in LiveScience here.